Praying

Aim

• Power of the Tongue

• Example of the Prophets

• James’ true driving force

Background: Ch 1v26-27

James’ focus on tongue in Ch 5:

• v1“weep & howl” CR Joel 1v19

• v4 “crieth…cries of them”

• v9 “grudge not”

• v10 “prophets have spoken”

• v12 “swear not”

• v13 “Sing”

• v14 “Call”

• v15 “Prayer”

• v16 “Confess”

Background Ch 4

• Acts 6v7

• Acts 8v1,4,8. Joy in Trial (Ch

1). “Diaspora” (Acts 11v18-21)

• Acts 11v1-3 Judaism grows in

Ecclesia Acts 15v1,5; v13-21,

Gal 2v12-14, Acts 21v18-26

Ch 4 “Go to now”

Susceptible believers

Ch 5 “Go to now”

Rich Jewish Leaders

GK “Sepo”

Is James 5 contradicting James 3?

• If we ask for God’s wisdom in trial (Ch 1) then

God will give it! God’s Judgement is JUST!

• Isa 51v7-9, 50v9 – Psa 73v1-19

Background Ch 5

• Acts 4v1-21, 6v12, 7v51-58,

12v1-3, 17v5-6

• Jam 2v6

Matt 6v16-21

James 5 “Last Days” = AD70

• “Ye rich men” – CR 2v6 & Luke 16v19-25 = Jewish Leaders

• “Weep” – CR Luke 23v28-30 = Daughters of Jerusalem

• “Howl” – Used by prophets (Joel 1) = Divine Judgment

• “Coming upon you” – Luke 21v26 = “Soon be upon you” WT

• “Garment” – “And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment” (Mark 13v16)

• “Witness” – Luke 21v13 “Turn to you as a testimony”

• “Fire” – “But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city” (Matt 22v7). CR LORD OF SABAOTH

• “Coming of the Lord” = GK “Parousia” (Matt 24) Presence

• “Husbandmen” = Matt 21v33-44 (Luke 20v9-18)

• “Patience of Job” – Matt 24v13 “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”

“A Witness Against You”

• “These (wicked ones) spoke evil of Christ; and having

the power of all hostile to the truth on their side, whether

Jew or Gentile, they subjected their Christian fellow-

countrymen to a fiery trial. Collectively, the unbelieving

Jews were then a formidable and dangerous power; for

though they were but foreigners in Anatolia, yet they

were ever ready to excite the idolatrous Greeks against

those of their own nation who acknowledged the

Messiahship of Jesus (Acts 17:5-8, 13). Peter refers to

these in the activity of their enmity against Christian

Jews, as their diabolos, or opponent-at-law, the seducer,

as a roaring lion, who walks about seeking whom he

may devour (1 Peter 5:8).”

• Bro Thomas (Last Days of Judah’s Commonwealth)

“The Coming of the Lord Draweth Nigh”

• “In this, Jesus evidently taught, that the Son of man's

coming to avenge his servants would be soon; certainly

not eighteen hundred years off; for this could not be

termed, speedily. History shows it was within forty years;

yet, though so soon as this, when his presence was

revealed by the encampment of the armies of the Little

Horn around Jerusalem, few believed in that appearing;

so faithless and apostate had Christian Jews become in

the very country where the labours of the Son of Man

himself, and of all his apostles, has been so abundant.”

• Bro Thomas (Last Days of Judah’s Commonwealth)

“THE Husbandman Waitheth”

• “But the great majority became weary and faint in their minds though

they had not resisted as yet unto blood, striving against the sin of

apostasy. Iniquity abounding among them, the love of the greater

number had waxed cold. Contentions and strifes prevailed among

them, with every evil work. It is evident from Peter, James and Jude,

that a perfectly antediluvian condition of things prevailed among

them; and that, therefore, the fate of the old world, and of Sodom

and Gomorrha awaited them. They had been the salt of the forty-

second generation; but they had lost their savour; so that nothing

now remained, but that they and it should be cast out, and trodden

under foot of the Gentiles. The coming of the Son of Man to take the

Kingdom from the evil husbandmen, and to avenge the death of his

servants from Abel to the Son of Barachias; was a matter of laughter

and scorn.”

• Bro Thomas (Last Days of Judah’s Commonwealth)

“shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry

day and night unto him”

“All things will work together for GOOD…to them that LOVE God” God is on our side!!

Of your faith

Lacking nothing

(Have the

Kingdom)

Power of the Tongue? = PRAYER!

“Cries of them…ears of the Lord of Sabaoth”

Heb = Yahweh of armies

Be long spirited.

(v7-8)

Fix your eyes on the future glory.

“Establish” (v8) = “set his face” (Lk 9v51) because of

the “Joy set before him”.

Patience

Forbearance,

longsuffering.

(v10)

Noun of word v7

A fruit of the Spirit

(Gal 5v22). A

characteristic as

experience has

developed. (Rom

5v1-3). Used of

God’s

Longsuffering!

Steadfastness.

(v11)

Root = to stay

under/behind

Why stay under?

CONTEXT =

“I am your

companion in

tribulation &

patience” (Rev 1v7)

“Here is the

patience and FAITH

of the Saints” (Rev

13)

Developing Patience

“Grudge Not…swear not”

• Power of the Tongue… (1v26)

expresses our heart under trial.

• 1v13 “let no man say…”

• Trial often causes us to

begrudge others (break 2nd

great law)

• Trial can cause us to speak

inadvisably with our lips

against God, break 1st great

law = v12 “Above all”

• Job’s initial patience

Job 1v20-22

• Job’s friends charge

Job 4v5-6 • Job’s long

spirited patience

Job 19v25-27

• Job’s final patience

Job 42v6-8

What is the sickness here?

Hint – v16

Keys to “healing”…

• Prayer!

• Singing

• Elders

• Oil = Isa 61v3

• God’s forgiveness

• Righteousness!

“Prayer of faith”

• Energy – we are involved in

request & outworking

• Righteous man – not asking

amiss (Ch 4), sincere

• Earnest prayer – YLT “With

prayer did he pray”

• “Prayed again” – continual

• Brings forth FRUIT (5v18)

• James 1v18 “Firstfruits” –

Christ is the “firstfruits of them

that sleep” (1 Cor 15v20). And

we “that are Christ’s at his

coming”

KEY TO JAMES!

• Background: 1 Cor 15v7, Acts

1v14

• James never forgot what he

did wrong…and if Christ would

go out to save him, then he

should do same to everyone!

(Matt 18v2-35)

• Defining character of James!!